More pics from Baptism weekend (from Melissa)

Pics from Dylan's baptism weekend

Melissa, Tim, Dylan, Sophie, Natalie

Brent, Kori, Brendan, Colton, Christian, Logan

Wanda and Gary

Dylan

Brendan

Sophie

Colton

Dylan

Dylan

Brendan

Brendan

Colton

Sophie

Dylan

Christian

Brendan

Kori

Logan

Kori

Brendan

Christian

Logan

Logan

Tim

Sophie

Sophie

Christian, Dylan, Brendan

Natalie

Natalie

August 2, 2014

Well, it has been 2 weeks since I updated this.  First off, birthdays we had in July:  Casey (Ashley’s husband) 7/11; Jackson turned 13 on 7/13; Brooklyn turned 7 on 7/14; Dylan turned 8 on 7/21; and Nathan turned 13 on 7/23.  

With Dylan turning 8, we headed to Texas for his baptism.  We flew to Dallas on Thursday, 7/24, leaving here at 4:10 pm and arriving at I think it was 11:30 pm.  Melissa picked us up at the airport, we briefly looked at the house (our first time there) and went to bed at about 1 am.  At 7 the next morning, we had some quiet visitors in our bedroom— Natalie came in to see us and Sophie.  They both got hugs, then they left.  We got up about an hour later.  We looked all around their beautiful new home, went swimming with the three kids in their pool, then got out and got ready again.  Melissa had some last minute shopping to do for the weekend, so I went with her.  She decided to treat me to my first pedicure, so we we went and got that done, then the shopping, then back home.  Tim’s dad, Brad, and step-brother, Tanton, had flown in the night we did too, but stayed in a hotel near the airport.  Then on Friday morning, those 3 guys had headed to the temple together.  So, when they were back, that was when Melissa and I headed out.  We hung out together that afternoon, then Kori, Brent, Brendan, Christian, Colton, and Logan arrived later that afternoon.  Brendan was the first one out of their car, and when he came up to me I could see he had grown!  He was now taller than me.  It had been over a year since we had seen Kori’s family, and just about a year since we had seen Melissa’s family.  Everybody had grown—some more noticeably than others.  It was so good to see them all and hug them all!

We had swimming that evening again.  Well, we basically swam in all the free time!  Saturday, the baptism was at 1.  I ended up giving the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Someone from Melissa’s ward was supposed to do it (the bishop likes ward members, not family, to speak at the baptism’s), but was going to be out of town after all, so on Tuesday, the Bishop asked if a grandparent could speak instead.  She asked me, and luckily I have talks saved on the computer.  I have spoken at many a baptism!  When the baptism was over, we came home and started our pool party!  Oh, I forgot to mention, Friday night Tim’s mom, Kim, flew in and was staying at a hotel sort of nearby.  So both Tim’s parent’s were at the baptism, and his step-brother, and on Melissa’s side, we were there and Kori’s family.  For the pool party, Melissa had rented a snow cone machine, because that is what Dylan wanted.  It was a hot day, and the snow cones were a great hit!  We had hamburgers cooked on the grill, and other side dishes to go with it.  It was a fun afternoon, with almost everyone swimming at some point or other during the day.  On Sunday morning, very early, Brad and Tanton flew back to Utah.  They were heading to Lake Powell for a vacation with friends.  The rest of us went to church.  Sophie wasn’t feeling very well, so Kim took her back to the house after Sacrament meeting.  They were thinking it was her sinuses.  But, now I am wondering if she had a little cold….as I came down with one shortly after getting home.  We went to Primary to hear Natalie give a scripture, then headed to Sunday School class.  The teacher of the class was Brother Wilks—Sister Nancy Wilks’ son!!  What a small world, huh!  Also, at the baptism we had learned of a young man from their ward who just got his mission call, Elder Felt, and guess where he is heading???  Yep, California San Jose Mission!!  So, Gary had a chance to visit with him, and I had a chance to visit with his mom.  Crazy!!

Later on Sunday afternoon, Kori’s family headed back to The Woodlands (Houston area).  We were heading out early Monday morning.  Sunday night, Tim gave me an injection in my thumb that has been hurting me for months.  It seems to be doing lots better!  Nice to have a doctor in the family!  Of course, if we had been home, I would have gone to see our family doctor about it.  But, out here, it is just hard to try to find a doctor who uses our insurance, whose first language is English (so we can understand them), and who will take a new—-well, temporary—patient.  We just didn’t want to deal with the hassle of finding one, so I just decided to tough it out.  So, thanks to Tim, he was able to help me out.  Hopefully, that is all it will take, and I won’t have pain there any more.  We got up at 5 am central time to get ready to fly back to San Jose, left the house at 6 (Tim took us to the airport), and arrived in San Jose at 9:15 am.  It was a direct flight this time, so that helped!  After finally getting out of the airport, as we drove right past our apartment, we decided to quickly drop our luggage off, and Gary could change out of his suit into just slacks and white shirt and tie, then we headed to the office.  By the end of the day, we were both beat!  But, we needed some groceries, so we quickly got some Monday evening, then headed to bed.  

That week that we flew out to Texas had been Zone Conferences for the mission.  We hadn’t thought of that as we planned this trip, only that we knew were avoiding transfer week.  So, Gary missed the Zone Conference on Friday, and I missed that one day of work.  The weekend went by fast, but when we got back to the office, it seemed like a long time since we had been there……how does that happen??   We got caught up, and have had a steady week of work this week.  I have been struggling with a scratchy throat this week, and a stuffy nose and sneezing.  Yesterday was a long day.  Gary had to close an apartment in Watsonville, an hour south of here, but the manager couldn’t do the walk-through until 8 pm.  So, we left after work, headed down there, ate dinner, then went to the apartment.  After the walk-through, we headed back home, arriving back at the office by 9:30, dropping off the mission truck and getting into our car to head home.  We slept in this morning….8 am.  (I know, it still seems crazy to me that that is sleeping in!!  But we normally get up around 6 now).  We have been taking it slow today, cleaning and laundry, just some odds and ends shopping, and relaxing.  And catching up on this journal.  

Oh, I forgot to mention!  I spoke to Sister Morgan Bradshaw yesterday.  She is hoping to come back to San Jose in a couple of weeks for a baptism of a family she worked with.  We are excited to see her again!  She is the one that Gary always called his PTO president…..it started because when we first met her, she reminded us of Colleen Erickson, who had been PTO president at Mt. View when Gary was principal there.  She just went home in July, and lives in Beaver, Utah.  She will be attending BYU-I, so when we get home, we will be able to see her more.

Yesterday, we had some sad news:  Shelley’s cat, Oreo, who is 18 years old, has been struggling the last couple of weeks, not eating or drinking, losing weight and just going downhill.  Like he has just given up and was ready to go.  So, after having him on fluids a week ago trying to help him, and then having him go down hill again this week, Shelley decided it was probably time to let him go.  She said it was like he was just giving up.  So they made the decision to put him down.  What a sad day!  Shelley has had that cat since she was 11 years old.  Her kids have always had him, their whole lives.  So now he is in heaven with Phoebe (Melissa’s cat) and our faithful dog Trampy.  I truly believe that our beloved pets will be there to greet us when we arrive in heaven someday.  They were always so loving to us, as faithful pets are.  Melissa wrote this on Shelley’s Facebook page:  “Owning a pet is the best thing about being human.  No other animal provides food and shelter for another species just for the pleasure of it’s company.”  So true!  Pets become part of the family, are loved, and will be missed.  We will always remember Oreo with much fondness, and he will be missed.

Well, I guess that this lengthy journal entry needs to come to a close.  I have some missionary pants I need to get shortened.  A couple of weeks ago I had some to lengthen.  We seniors help the young missionaries where we can.   [update:  spent the rest of the evening putting pics on the computer so I could add them to the blog]

Remember, the church is true!!  We are so grateful for it in our lives, and grateful for our family and friends, both here and at home.  This mission is quickly passing.  We will hit our 1 year mark in a couple of weeks. Wow!  We are grateful to those we hear from…..we love hearing of the missionary experiences of our fellow Arimo senior missionary couples.  Keep up the good work, Evan and Trudy Fullmer, and Dale and Ivalue Hatch!  Each of us are having totally different mission experiences, but they all are important in the hastening of the work.  

Okay, I am really done talking now!!  See you later!

July 20, 2014

We had a first this week…..an office staff meeting.  It went long, about 2 hrs., but this was a first, so the rest shouldn’t be so long.  Yes, we have more scheduled!  It was great to feel a part of things for a change.  To be informed about things going on, and to make some suggestions that could help our work.  We are really enjoying working with President Mella!  He really does care how we feel.  In fact, he told Gary “the staff that’s informed is the staff that is motivated”.  So true!  

Remember me talking about Sister Wright, who got hit by a car and went home to recuperate?  Well, she came back to the mission yesterday!  I think having that goal helped in her recovery.  She had been told that when she got back she could be companion's with the girl she was a companion with when she got hit.  And so they are!  But the other girl, Sister Reid, will be going home in a few weeks, so they won’t have a lot of time to make new memories and get over those bad ones.  But, I know it will be great, especially for Sister Reid, who I heard had feelings she struggled with at the time of the accident of the “what if’s” she could have done to keep the accident from happening in the first place.  Which was nothing….but it is just a natural reaction to blame yourself.  So this will be good for them both.  We also got another sister yesterday who had gone home for illness from another mission, and was being relocated to our mission.  

Wednesday, we got a new Vietnamese elder, Elder Golightly.  So the Viet elders are in a trio right now.  The branch was very excited to meet him today!  And, he got a good welcome, since we had a married couple who were baptized today, and then we had the usual meal afterwards.  

I taught the Relief Society lesson today, on Chastity and Modesty.  

At church, I had Kim explain to the 2 ladies that I pick up each Sunday that I won’t be there next Sunday, so they need another ride, but that I will be back the next Sunday.  

We leave Thursday late afternoon for Texas!!  Melissa’s oldest, Dylan, will be getting baptized.  And Kori and family will be up for the weekend too, so we can get lots of visiting in!  Time sure goes by fast…..I remember the first time I watched Dylan for them, when Tim was finishing up Med school, and they had taken a vacation.  Dylan at that time (under a year old) had hair that stuck up automatically.  At the store with him, I heard another little boy tell his mother “do you see that baby’s hair?  It is so cool!”  or something like that.  He was stylin’ as a baby, I guess, with cool hairdos!  He had a natural spike hairdo.  I also remember him in his jumper, just a jumping like crazy!  Like it was a job, and he had to reach a certain number in a set amount of time!  He was so focused on it!!  And now he is turning 8 this week!  We will arrive late Thursday night, spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and catch an early flight on Monday morning to get back to the office and get our jobs done.  I am sure by Monday night we will be exhausted, but it will be worth it……we will just have to get to bed early that night!

Yesterday we hit our 11 month mark…..7 to go.  Which means in 6 we begin training our replacements.  It will be here before we know it at the rate the time flies!

Well, I guess that is about it for this week’s entry. 

July 13, 2014

July 13, 2014

Well, we just finished another transfer week!  Once again we sent home some missionaries that we have gotten close to and will miss!

This week has been great working with President Mella.  We already feel comfortable with him.  He is willing to listen and understands how hard we are working to keep things in the mission running smoothly…..our behind the scenes jobs.  He is doing what he can to not add to our burden….which, by the way, already eased up a lot!  We learned that mission presidents and wives are not supposed to turn in receipts to me for reimbursement, but they are to scan and email them to Salt Lake for reimbursement!  Wow…..that takes a lot off of my plate…..and will make my job easier.  We have always been told that change is good, so we shall see what changes come that will be good, I guess!  We noticed the first change on Friday.  The MLC (Mission Leadership Council) which consists of the Zone Leaders and the STL’s (Sister Training Leaders) was held.  In the past, the meeting went from 9 to 3, with a break for lunch.  This time, it was just in the morning, ended at lunch time.  The missionaries seemed excited that it wasn’t as long as in the past.  Shorter meetings ought to give them more time for their missionary work.  These MLC meetings occur every 4 weeks I think, so that will end up giving quite a bit of time overall back to the missionaries for their work.

Last Monday we had our Senior Family Home Evening at President and Sister Mella’s home.  We did a potluck, with President Mella grilling chicken on the barbecue grill, and Sister Mella cooking a big pot of rice.  It was a nice evening, enjoying one another’s company.  When we cleaned up from dinner, we gathered in the family room, and went around the room telling a bit about ourselves and our callings and telling a family history story from our family.  What a neat way to learn more about other people!  We learned that Elder Michie is descended from the Hunsakers that settled Honeyville.  I told him afterwards that Grant’s mom is also descended from that Hunsaker, as well as Ann’s dad…..so we are kind of connected there - in a round about way of course…fun!

I still haven’t typed up my notes from the Outgoing Devotional last Sunday, July 6th.  Maybe I will get to it later today.

Last Friday, Gary moved another set of sisters into their new apartment.  This was the last one in the apartment we had to be out of because the building was sold, and possibly being torn down.  Everyone in the building got eviction notices because of the change in ownership, anyway.  Now, he has the task of getting missionaries what they need this week since the latest transfer.  Also, we have another senior couple coming the end of August, so when the president decides where he will place them, then Gary will need to get another apartment ready for them…..always busy!

Saturday night (yesterday), we went out to dinner with the Michie’s.  We had gone on a walk while my bread was rising, and Gary’s phone rang, asking us if we would like to come over to visit with them…..they said it was too quiet!  So, we went to visit awhile, then decided to go to Sizzler for dinner.  It was a nice evening!  I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but they live on the opposite end of the building we live in.  We are apartment 502, they are 526.  The Crockett’s are in apartment 310, the building on the other side of the pool from us.  The Vietnamese elders are in apartment 292, a couple of buildings away.  Speaking of the Vietnamese elders……Elder Hullinger was made a traveling AP, so is out of the Vietnamese program from now.  So, we won’t get to see him as much…….that was sad, we really enjoy him, but we know he will do a great job in his new calling.  We are also getting another Vietnamese elder this coming Wednesday, Elder Golightly.  So that will be 3 Viet elders in our branch for now….Elder Kwon, Elder Ho and Elder Golightly.   And speaking of our branch…..we have a baptism coming up again!  Next Sunday after church, we have a man and his wife getting baptized…their names are Minh and Loan.   I don’t know their last names.  So we will be staying after church next week for that and for a small social which the branch always does after a baptism.  Only this time it was announced it won’t be a big meal, but easy foods, because clean up gets to be too much with a big meal.

Our next transfer is in August, and will be a big one….each side of it.  We have around 30 going home, and we have around that many coming in!  So, we may all need to drive vehicles to the airport to get them all there and pick up all the new ones.  The AP’s will let us know those details later.

We have exciting things to look forward to this month—we are flying to Dallas the weekend of the 25th for Dylan’s baptism!  And we will not only get to see Melissa’s family, but Kori’s family as well!  I can’t wait to hug and kiss some grandkids and see how much they have grown!!

Well, I am hoping for a normal week in the office this week, quieter than it has been for 7 weeks.   During the last 7 weeks we have had 2 transfer weeks, missionary interviews with President Watkins, and Meet and Greet’s with the new president and his wife.  That makes for a crazy office full of missionaries almost constantly!  And makes it hard to get our jobs done well.  And makes for a stressed out Wanda!  (Sorry Gary)  So, maybe this week we can catch our breaths and catch up on our jobs.  I hope so.  I know I am not the only one who feels like I am falling behind.

We hope all of you are doing well, and look forward to hearing about what is going on in your lives…..if you happen to send us an email!  Once again, we caught tidbits the rare times we glanced at Facebook, but don’t know any details……fill us in!   And thanks so much to the ones we do hear from!

When I get the notes from the Outgoing Devotional put on here, I hope you get a feel for the meeting as I did.  As usual, it was a spiritual feast!  I love hearing from the new converts…..how they are so grateful for the changes in their lives, and are so happy to be closer to Christ now.   Some struggle to give up bad habits, but are so grateful when they see themselves change for the better.   Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are also so grateful when they see us change for the better.  None of us is perfect, so we all need to make constant changes to improve our lives to try and be what we can be.  I hope we can all work towards that goal of being the best that we can be, and being better children of our Heavenly Father.

See you soon!   [Next Saturday we will hit our 11 month mark—7 months to go!]

July 6, 2014 - cars

I forgot to mention yesterday that we saw a Maserati!  We see lots of luxury cars around here......mainly Lexus, Acura, Mercedes, BMW.  I've seen a few Jaguars.  This was a first to see a Maserati!

Crazy to me is the number of people who live in the apartment complex who have a luxury car!  I'd want a nicer home first......instead of living in an apartment.  Especially because this complex isn't the nicest place.....more average to low end on pricing.

July 5, 2014

First week with our new mission President.   We (the office workers minus Gary) met President Mella on Monday.  Gary was already gone moving missionaries from one apartment to a new apartment in Redwood City when President Mella came to the office.  He had left about 10:30.  I had gone with Sister Nedreberg to pick up a car from Maaco, then to drop it off at AJ’s detailing shop and brought her back to the office.  By the time we got back, Pres. Mella had been there awhile visiting with Sis. Wilks.  Then he visited with Sister Nedreberg and I.  He seems very willing to listen to us, very personable and sharp.  I think things could go very well!

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, there were Meet and Greet’s scheduled at the office for all the zones to come in and meet President and Sister Mella.  They were scheduled 2 zones at a time, 2 from 8 to 9:30 am, then 2 from 10:30 to noon.  After they meet in the chapel for the hour and a half, then they went into the cultural hall for refreshments and to mingle and talk with them one on one.  There was a picture taken of each group.  We as office workers didn’t get in any of the pictures, as we were working in the office.  I never even had a chance to listen to any of the chapel sessions….too busy in the office.  The senior sisters that work in the employment center also didn’t make it to anything.  We are the ones who are on a different schedule from everyone else.  

Anyway, I met Sister Mella on Tuesday, and was very impressed with her.  It will be great working with them both.  Gary again was gone moving kids to a new apartment, so missed seeing the Mella’s until late on Tuesday.  

For the Meet and Greet’s, we three sisters in the office helped set up the food for the refreshments and cleaning up after.  Sister Wilks and I did one of the shopping trips for the food, and Sister Mella did another.

The week was tiring with missionaries constantly in the office again this week.  It really is hard to get our jobs done with so many extras in the office.  We just have to plug along and do the best we can.  We love seeing the kids and visiting with them, but it becomes too much when so many are in at once.

Thursday, July 3rd, Gary and I were so exhausted that we went to sleep shortly after 8.  It was nice and quiet in the apartment complex for a change.  In fact, I thought that most people must be gone camping or out of town or something.  However, the next morning when I got up….7 am (slept in……boy, were we tired last night!!) and went walking, there were still most of the cars in the parking lot, so I knew they were still around.  I mentioned this to Elder Crockett when I happened to see him as I was taking laundry to the laundromat here in the complex……he said, maybe they were resting up for tonight!!  Turns out he was probably right!  Anyway, we didn’t have to go in to the office in the morning, so I was busy getting the laundry done so we could enjoy our Saturday.  I did most of it in the laundromat, and just a little in the apartment so that we got it done in a short amount of time.  We went in to the office at noon, and worked until shortly after 4.   I didn’t get much work done.  It was new leader training going on, and those who weren’t being trained just hung out in our offices visiting.

So, now to the evening of July 4th.  We went to the pool for a little bit…..first time in several months we have been out there.  After a bit, some others came and we left.  Then we started hearing all the fireworks going off….crazy loud!  Crazy that they do them in such crowded quarters.  I kept telling Gary that I hope they didn’t set them off in the parking lots near the cars and ruin ours somehow.   Then, about 9:45, just as we were shutting windows and turning on the AC and fans so we could hopefully drown out all the noise outside so we could go to bed, the phone rang……the sisters who live in King City (way south on 101….the farthest point south in the mission….about 2 hours drive from here) called and said they locked themselves out of their apartment.  They had called the manager, but no answer.  Thinking that maybe the manager might be out of town, or at least out late for fireworks, we got to thinking that maybe we would have to make a trip down there to unlock the door for them.  Gary keeps extra keys in the office for just those sort of reasons.  However, this would be WAY out of the way to drive clear down there to let them in.  So, we thought, well, let’s pack an overnight bag, drive down, spend the night somewhere, and then spend Saturday starting from there.  As we were packing and getting ready to head out, the phone rang again, and the manager had finally called them back.  Yes, she was out of town, and called her sub who was going over to let the girls in.  We told them to call us back to make sure they were in safe.  Not long after, we got the call, so we unpacked and went to bed.

This morning, Saturday July 5th, we got up and decided to take a drive to see Los Banos.  Gary had been curious to see what it looked like since a friend of Grandpa Yearsley is from there….a guy known as Bonehead who has some land up Cottonwood next to Grandpa’s land.  He comes up there a couple of times a year, and is from Los Banos.  I was curious to see what a place like that looked like…..since the name means “the bathroom”!  It was a town of about 37,000……a farming area.  We ate lunch there at Dairy Queen, then headed home.  When we went, we headed south on 101 to Gilroy, then cut over on a highway heading east to Los Banos from there.  When we headed home, we decided to go north on I-5, then head west on I-580 to Livermore then back home.  That drive seemed to go much faster.  After we got home, we got ready to go grocery shopping, which didn’t take too long, then we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant off of Bernal and Santa Teresa called Golden House.  It was pretty good!  Gary had eaten there before and talked about how good his lunch was, so I had been wanting to try it out.

Tomorrow is the outgoing devotional…number 8 of 13 for us.  And the beginning of the next transfer week.  We are losing some really sharp missionaries this time who we have gotten close to…..we will miss them, but we know some of them we may get to see again when we get home, such as Sister Bradshaw.  She is from Beaver, Utah and going to BYU-I, so we have told her how to find our house and to come and see us when we get home.  Each time now we lose some missionaries we have become really attached to and hope we get a chance to see again.  Some live farther away and we don’t know when we will see them again, but hope to keep in contact with on Facebook at least!

So, I decided to do my blog today because tomorrow will be busy.  I will write my notes of the devotional later on.  Monday night is senior FHE at the mission home.  We will be doing a potluck dinner this night.  I told the Mella’s we could skip it this month if they wanted, since they weren’t even settled in yet, but they said no, they wanted to keep things up as they had been done.  Sister Mella had talked to me about it, because one of my jobs is sending out the emails to the seniors letting them know of the date and time of Senior FHE.  I really thought we would skip it this month, or at least put it off a week or so.  They are definitely jumping right in to the job!  So this will be a long, busy week with the outgoing on Sunday, FHE on Monday, and transfer things going on all week.  

Oh, we heard from Kori and family this week off and on…they are on vacation and went to Nauvoo, Illinois among other places.  While in Nauvoo, they got to see our friends Dale and Ivalue Hatch who are serving their mission there!  Fun!  It was fun seeing the pictures they sent us.  

We love hearing from you…..family and friends!  Have a great week!!